Capacitance issues with Fender stereo Y guitar cable??

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

In article <1110033654.019725.155770@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com> jhardikar@yahoo.com writes:

> I have a Fender Nashville Power Telecaster that has both magnetic
> pickups and a Fishman piezo pickup. If the guitar's stereo jack senses
> a stereo cable plugged in - it sends the magnetic signal thru the tip
> and piezo/acoustic signal thru the sleeve - out to the mono jacks at
> the 2 ends of this Y cable.

Well, actually it isn't the jack that senses anything, and the piezo
signal comes from the ring (not sleeve) contact, and they go to plugs,
not jacks on the other end of the cable.

> I was experimenting with my cables and a multimeter. I dont have a
> capacitance meter - but decided to see what the ohm meter displays
> across ground and tip of:
>
> 1. the 2 ends of the supplied FENDER Y cable while the stereo-end is
> plugged into the tele.
>
> 2. the 2 ends of the an old tip-ring-sleeve Y cable while the
> stereo-end is plugged into the tele.
>
> 3. a standard mono cable.
>
> Here's what I found:

Your numbers are a little strange, but perhaps explainable. Does the
piezo pickup have a preamp built in to the guitar? And are there
separate volume controls for the piezo and magnetic pickup outputs?

> 1 (fender Y): 6 ohms on the acoustic end (sleeve)
> 1 (fender Y): 20 ohms on the electric end (tip)

This looks like you may have taken the readings with the volume
control set nearly all the way down. Turn the volume up full and see
if the electric (tip) reading goes up to a few kOhms. Also, read it
with different settings of the pickup switch. If there's a
built-in preamp, you might get readings that low regardless of the
volume control setting.

> 2 (generic Y): 8.5 ohms on the sleeve end
> 2 (generic Y): infinite (no reading) on the sleeve end!

Sounds like this one is old enough to be broken. And that you may have
inadvertently changed the volume control setting between readings.

> 3 (mono): 4.5 ohms

Again, check the reading with the volume fully up.

> Also - anyone knows where one can buy low capacitance STEREO Y
> instrument cable to use with my Power Tele?

There must be a huckster somewhere selling one, but chances are the
Fender cable is as good as you'll get. They aren't stoopid. They would
give you the best cable they could afford to make your guitar sound as
good as it could. Unless you're looking for a very long cable, like
over 25 feet, you don't really need to worry about a special low
capacitance cable. And for something that long, wired the way it needs
to be wired, you'd probably have to get it custom built anyway.




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Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

>>MR: check the reading with the volume fully up....

Same exact readings. ALl vols max.


>>By the way - the reason I am pondering about my cable is because I
>>noticed this:

>>If I use the stereo cable and plug in only the electric end into my
BJR
>>- my volume knob has no affect till it reaches > 3/4 of the way -
then
>>it kicks in from zero to max in just a qtr turn.

Interesting new observation - this above observation seems to be MUCH
less prominent when I have the amp distorted - but is very prominent
when I go for a clean tele sound...

Jay